This invention pertains to a machine for feeding single articles in a timed manner from a stack of articles which may be characterized as limp or floppy or shape unstable. Examples of such articles are sanitary napkins, diapers and other absorbent pads that are used on the body of incontinent adults.
In general machines which feed rigid or dimensionally stable products one-by-one from a hopper use suction cups or driven rollers for extracting an article. Products such as body exudant absorbent pads which are pliable and very porous cannot be segregated from the top of a stack of diapers nor from the bottom of a stack with suction cups. It is also not practical to push a pliable pad from the top or bottom of a stack with rollers without having the pad badly deformed in the process.